Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) systems interact with users by playing prompts and listening for responses from users. The systems attempt to recognize responses. Various actions can be performed in response to recognized speech.
While a speech recognition system is playing a prompt for a user, sounds may be received by the system. These sounds are known as barge-in sounds or simply barge-in and can be from a variety of both target sources and non-target sources. The target sources could be, for example, target speech sources, such as from the user that is interacting with the system. The non-target sources could be, for example, non-target speech (such as background speech from someone other than the user) or non-speech, such as the user making a noise such as coughing, a door shutting, and cars or other vehicles making traffic-related noises. These non-target sources may incorrectly be identified by the IVR system as an intended barge-in by the user, inhibiting the effectiveness of the IVR system.